A Quietly Devastating Portrait of Need
Capital Stage's season closer is a masterclass in restraint — four actors at the top of their game in Martyna Majok's Pulitzer-winning examination of care and dependency.
There is nothing showy about Cost of Living. It does not announce its intentions, reach for easy emotion, or let you off the hook. Martyna Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning play arrives at Capital Stage in a production that honours exactly those qualities.
The play braids two stories. In one, a Princeton graduate student hires a caregiver for himself — a transaction that refuses to stay transactional. In the other, a man tries to reconnect with his ex-wife after a car accident leaves her quadriplegic. Director David Huang moves between them with precision, never forcing the parallels.
Maria Okonkwo is extraordinary as Ani. The technical demands of the role are immense — she is physically still for much of the production — but the stillness becomes its own kind of power. This is the kind of theatre that stays with you.